Johann Andreas Stein

Biography

Johann Andreas Stein was born at Hildesheim in 1728 and trained as an organ builder, learning piano making in Gottfried Silbermann's shop. Around 1754 he established himself at Augsburg, where he also built the great organ for the Church of St. Francis, and in 1758 he traveled to Paris seeking a larger market, only to return to Augsburg disappointed and nearly penniless. There he invented the 'hopper action' along with many other improvements. Mozart, in a letter to his mother, pronounced Stein's pianos superior to any others he had played, and Stein's designs were copied everywhere, especially by the Vienna makers, earning him recognition as the father of the Vienna school of piano making. He built about 700 pianos and several church organs before dying at Augsburg on February 29, 1792, in his 64th year. His talented daughter Nannette, who had learned the craft under him, continued the trade after his death. Johann Andreas Stein, of Augsburg, added the "hopper" to Gottfried Silbermann's improved version of the Schröter action around 1780, an addition that overcame the annoying "blocking" of the hammer and further improved the touch. The resulting Schröter-Stein action was preferred by most virtuosos of the day, including masters like Mozart and Beethoven, over the contemporary English action, although it eventually gave way to the Cristofori-Backers lineage. Stein is also named among the ablest piano makers of his era who struggled with, and ultimately abandoned, the problem of a downward-striking grand piano action, a pursuit later taken up unsuccessfully by Henri Pape and his pupils. He is identified as the grandfather of Johann Baptist Streicher, who patented his own refinement of the grand action in 1824. Johann Andreas Stein, working together with his daughter Nannette Stein-Streicher, is described as having so materially improved the Schröter action that the grand pianos they produced from 1780 onward were preferred by Mozart, Beethoven, and other masters of the period. Dolge attributes this preference to the resulting Vienna action's more elastic touch, compared with the Cristofori-derived English action, and its more sympathetic, clavichord-like tone, qualities much admired by players of the time. The passage credits Stein as a foundational figure of the Vienna school of piano making, whose action design gave Vienna grand pianos (flügel) supremacy in Germany, Austria, and Italy for many years, until metal resistance frames began to be developed in that region only later, in 1837. Johann Andreas Stein of Augsburg is described as Gottfried Silbermann's most talented pupil. Rather than following Silbermann's own approach, Stein took Christoph Schröter's original hammer action design as the basis for his own improvement, which became known as the 'Vienna' or 'German' action. An illustration labeled 'Stein's Hammer Action' appears in the text. Johann Andreas Stein is described by Dolge as undoubtedly the most talented of Gottfried Silbermann's pupils. He relocated to Augsburg, where he built his first piano in 1768. His daughter Nannette, with her husband Johann Andreas Streicher, later moved to Vienna and founded what Dolge calls the 'Vienna school' of piano making. From Spillane (1890): Stein, of Augsburg, is listed among the celebrated harpsichord-makers of Germany, France, and Italy whose careers helped promote the early pianoforte, and separately as one of the imitators who followed Schröeter's Dresden success. Spillane states that Stein, like his contemporaries Silbermann and Spaett, reached a high plane of eminence in the pianoforte manufacturing business in later years, though no further personal detail is given. Stein is named by Spillane among the small group of most noted piano makers active in Europe about the beginning of the nineteenth century, listed alongside Stodart, Broadwood, Pleyel, and Erard as figures of comparable standing in the trade at that period. No further biographical detail about Stein is given in this portion of the text.

Highlights

• Described as Silbermann's most talented pupil
• Based his improved action, known as the 'Vienna' or 'German' action, on Schröter's original design
• With his daughter Nannette Stein-Streicher, materially improved the Schröter action
• Grand pianos made by Stein and his daughter from 1780 on were preferred by Mozart, Beethoven and other masters
• Added the 'hopper' to the Schröter action around 1780, overcoming the annoying 'blocking' of the hammer
• His resulting Schröter-Stein action was preferred by most virtuosos, including Mozart and Beethoven, over the English action
• Was among the makers who earlier attempted and abandoned a downward-striking grand piano action
• Grandfather of Johann Baptist Streicher, who patented a related grand action in 1824
• Considered by Dolge the most talented of Silbermann's pupils
• Made his first piano at Augsburg in 1768
• Invented the 'hopper action' and other piano improvements
• Mozart pronounced his pianos superior to any others he had played
• Called the father of the Vienna school of piano making; built about 700 pianos
• Of Augsburg; listed among the celebrated harpsichord-makers of the era
• Said to have reached a high plane of eminence in pianoforte manufacturing
• Named among the most noted piano makers in Europe about the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 46, 48, 59, 87.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 16, 19, 22.

Public domain.